She was flying.

The wind was blowing in her hair and the sun was shining down; its bright rays warm on her face. With her eyes closed, Nam Ji Hyun could easily imagine she was soaring in the sky. She holds on tight and opens her eyes to see the man seated in front of her trying to catch a glimpse of her, a wide grin on his face.

"Oppa, keep your eyes on the road," she laughs. Then, she wraps her arms around him tighter and laughs even more as he revs the engine. The roar of the little Vespa and the wind whipping her hair made her feel exhilarated and... oh, so free! She feels him laugh against her and she joins in again, not able to contain her happiness.

They ride past the beaches and towns on the southern coast of the island until finally they find a quiet spot by the shore. Chang Wook-oppa helps her off the bike and, before she could do it herself, he unsnaps her helmet and lifts it away. She smiles up at him as he fixes her hair and gently tucks some wayward strands behind her ears. The soft concentration in his eyes makes her heart sigh. She could get used to this. 

They put the helmets away and walk hand in hand towards the shore where they find a spot near some rocks to sit and watch the ocean. The beach here was more of a rocky outcrop, but it was nice and deserted; and at the moment it felt like only the two of them existed.
 

For a while they just sit quietly, enjoying the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore and the call of seagulls in the distance. JiHyun thinks back to the many hours she had spent doing this very same thing before; but this time felt so different. She looks at their hands still clapsed together and smiles. A sudden flood of images and words pop into her mind, and she itches to write them down but saves them for a later time.

She decides to tell him a story instead. 

"Oppa have, you ever heard the legend of Seolmundae?"
 

He shakes his head and looks at her, his eyes curious. So, she begins.

"A long, long time ago there was a goddess in heaven. Her name was Seolmundae and she was the third daughter of the Jade Emperor. Everyday Seolmundae Halmang would stare out of the Heavenly Palace and look at the earth which at that time was still joined to the heavens. As a goddess and the third daughter at that, she was expected to do nothing but be a pretty decoration. So she grew bored and one day she decided to separate the heavens and the earth."

"The rending of the two caused great earthquakes and calamities. With the two sides separated, the Gods no longer had tight control over what happened on earth. As punishment, the Jade Emperor threw her out of the heavens and forbade her from returning until she could put things back the way they were."

"What the Emperor hadn't realized was that the goddess had been waiting for just such a chance to escape. Now she could run free instead of being trapped in all the glitter and tedium of the palace."

"On earth, the goddess towered high over everything. She scooped up a mound of soil and dropped it into the ocean. That mound became Jeju island. However, she was unhappy because it seemed too flat. She piled up a little more soil and set it in the middle so that the people who would live there one day could reach closer to the heavens. That mound became Mount Halla."

"When she was satisfied, she got up and shook of her skirts and the dirt that fell become the hundreds of smaller oreums, or tiny volcanoes, that dot the island."

"Later the goddess gave birth to 500 sons; and well, the rest of the story gets a little gruesome. Shall I keep on telling it?" she asks, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

Chang Wook, who had been listening raptly, nods.

"Well," she continues, "One day the 500 sons come home after a long day of hunting and fishing. They see a bubbling pot with their dinner waiting; but their mother is nowhere to be seen. The sons have worked hard and are hungry; so they dig in, except for the youngest